The Crimson Syndicate
by James Fortune
Summary: A decade ago, Hunanda Feriat, a female floran with an unusual life story for one of her kind, created her own private group, in an effort to unify and stand out of the hundreds, or maybe thousands, of small teams or singular mercenary workers. This group quickly evolved from just warfare, to all areas of private contracting, but in her mind, a different path seems optimal to her...
1. Chapter 1 - The cleanup crew

**Chapter One – The cleanup crew**

Hunanda was a Floran female, standing a metre and seventy centimetres tall, her cobalt blue fibre like skin and dark orange leaf features making her stick out from the group. She was short amongst the towering individuals there, but her presence still demanded respect, and soon enough she began relaying the orders.

"I want a camp set up here!" She said, pointing down to the landing platform that was the rooftop of the building they stood on. This building was shaped like an Egyptian obelisk, with the two significant differences being the flat top and the sudden curving of the base of the structure, making a format that allowed a smooth transition from obelisk shaped tower to the flat rooftop of the complex blow.

There were eight other structures such as this, all of them placed at an equal distance of one another, in a three by three type organization, forming a square of sorts. The top ten floors of all nine towers were surrounded in glass, and plants could be seen on the inside, giving a clear indication that this colony was prepared enough to become a serious endeavour by the part of its ruling government.

This same government is the one that sought out the services of the Crimson Syndicate. Without hesitation, the group's mercenary forces came to handle the situation, and by now, most of the job had been done.

Hunanda raises her voice. "Alright, troops, you know the drill! This is the last part of the assignment, and we are going to need to be more careful. We cleared and locked down the other eight towers, but in this one, we will continue further down for the first time, and clear the lower building. It is tricky, has a lot of small rooms, blind spots and corners, so be attentive; I'd hate to come back to the base today with part of my crew missing."

She receives a signal as her mercenaries use their Matter Manipulators to drag out equipment and materials from two hovering ships that were just above the landing pad, quickly setting up a basic tent and fireplace camp. Taping her earpiece, she hears the voice of her strategic advisor, Rylan, a floran male that has the duty of directing a team responsible for taping into systems and giving as much information as possible, as well as give the mercenaries a heads up regarding any new developments. "Talk to me."

Rylan, a light green skinned floran of eyes and floral features as black as a Raven's feathers, has a wireless headset on, bending over one of his support teammates by looking at her screen. "The test results just came in, Boss, and apparently the sickness is unable to affect neither the Floran nor the Novakid; and its effect on the Glitch goes without saying..." He stands up straight and returns to his station.

"Alright, thanks for the heads up, White Cobra; Boss, out." She turns to her mercenaries and raises her voice. "We have some interesting news, people: the Floran and the Novakid are seemingly immune to the disease."

A Glitch, covered in the mercenaries' usual Infiltrator's armour set, with the exception that he had a hood on that only let out the glow from his eyes, as well as the fact that every armour set was black, approaches Hunanda, his metallic voice being heard easily. "What about the Glitch?"

Hunanda blinks twice at him and admonishes him. "You are made of metal, do you expect something biological to affect you, Bug?"

A quick monotone electronic laughter comes from the robot, who only witnesses a sigh from his leader, before being punched in the face and thrown backwards. She then turns to the others and clears her throat. "Alright, I will give you guys an hour to clean, verify and organize whatever you need, before we move on to this part of the assignment."

Everyone got to their tasks, and Hunanda took the chance to walk to the edge of landing platform, and looked beyond the colony itself, which was all enclosed within this singular building. Outside she saw an enormous and continuous forest that bordered the entire complex, and she couldn't help but be curious as to what was beyond: an orbital scan could only go so far in telling you what was on a planet's surface.

A Novakid approaches Hunanda and leans on the railing of the edge of the roof, looking at her, his head glowing lighter every time he spoke, his voice having a tone of echoing into the far off distance but not doing so, a supernatural effect of the Novakid's voices. "Everything alright, Cobalt?"

Hunanda looks at him and shakes her head. "We lost an eighth of the mercenaries we came here with so far, and it was only to clear these towers. The underground complex itself is going to be a maze, and I am afraid of what might happen if we are not careful enough."

He chuckles and nudges her. "Come on, it will be fine." He stretches himself and starts gesturing a lot, a reflex of his hyperactivity. "Instead of thinking that we are going to lose something, we are going to be kicking some ass!"

She smiles. "Yeah, you are right. I just fear that your glow might attract them... you are like a lamp for flies..."

He stares at her. "Correction, I am a Gas Lamp!"

She snorts. "Yeah, good joke, you universal fart."

He starts running to the other side of the roof, passing by his numerous teammates, whom despite knowing him ever since they joined, still can't help but stare in confusion or be amused of his behaviour, as he screams: "I'm a fart!"

Hunanda grins at her friend's idiocy and after an hour of preparations, everyone tight fits their gear to prepare for what is ahead. All but the Glitch, Floran and Novakid put on helmets, as they can still be infected by splatter or biological matter.

It was still fresh in her mind how this all began, five days before: _Hunanda sat in her office, back at base, going over quickly any issues that demanded administrative attention, when she was contacted by the head of the military of the Union of Free Systems and People._

_She heard a hum that increased and decreased in pitch at equal intervals, with an electronic beep being heard at every peak of pitch of this hum, a sound she was well accustomed to as it warned her that someone requested a conversation._

_She finished her affairs on the holographic table in front of her, tapped a button underneath the same desk and the entire room darkened; her chair turned around, and the only light came from the hologram she was now facing._

_A human female, dressed in a richly decorated uniform, smirked while looking at Hunanda. "Good day, my dear."_

_Hunanda, never having a liking for the political class, did a great effort to keep her polite posture, even if the woman in front her was supposedly military. "Good day, Senator Anna. Is there something I can help you with?"_

_"__Of course; the UFSP has an issue as of now: one of our colonies suffered a biological attack, and most of its population has been rendered into a primitive state, very aggressive."_

_Hunanda groaned. "And you want us to go clean up the mess?"_

_The woman nodded. "Capture or terminate any individuals present at the colony; we need to have it cleared so we can repopulate it and continue its running operations."_

_Clever as she was, the Floran's gaze squinted, making her inquire in a crucial matter. "So if you are allowing termination, then the situation is more serious than usual, especially since they are your people. What are you paying?"_

_Senator Anna sighed. "A hundred thousand pixels..."_

_Hunanda chuckled. "You think we can keep our eyes closed to unknown biological dangers for only that?"_

_Senator Anna groaned of displeasure and nodded. "Fine, we will double it, but I want the colony cleared in two weeks, maximum."_

_Hunanda nodded. "Deal done; just forward the coordinates of the system and the specific planet, and we will go there as soon as possible; Cobalt out." The hologram shut down and the chair turned Hunanda back to her desk._

She snapped back to the reality of the moment, where one of her mercenaries was going to open one of the doors that lead to the complex below; as the door open, a somewhat mangled apex jumped out, only to have his head pulverized by the quick trigger of Rax and one of his trusty energy pistols.

The Novakid chuckles, his entire face lighting up with every chuckle, as Hunanda looks at him: "Admit it, you will always like having this Gas Lamp around." She shakes his head at him, completely amused, as the four squads make their way down the stairwells.


	2. Chapter 2 - Purge

**Chapter Two – Purge**

The first phase of the operation didn't take longer than an hour, already accustomed to the layout of the towers, which were simply split into four portions, each with an elevator shaft circled by a stairwell in the innermost corner of every portion, and doors in the inside room that led to several small and isolated greenhouse rooms, each one with a different plant specimen.

As they reach the bottom, finding so far only one or two transformed workers, Hunanda calls Rylan, the leader of the assistance team, through her earpiece. "Alright, the tower is clear, we found barely any resistance, Cobra. What is your luck so far in penetrating the systems?"

The black eyed Floran typed away at his keyboard, while he turned his head to see the screens of his teammates. "Not much luck so far; the systems reduced their activity to minimum, and they cannot be brought back up to standard unless from an inside terminal, so until you figure out how to fix that, you will be walking blind in there. The most I can do is control the doors and locks, but all the rest requires bigger energies concentrations that the emergency services don't give."

Hunanda swears in an unrecognizable form of Floran dialect and returns her attention to her support team chief. "Alright, thanks. Make sure all doors are locked in the tower, and keep all of them locked in the structure below as well. We do not want any doors open unless we ask you to open a specific one, in order to clear a room."

"Roger that, Boss. Cobra, out."

Hunanda signals her team to follow her, as they move down the stairwell and find themselves in front of a door, in a darkened room. She raises her gun, turning on its flashlight attachment, and points at the metalized surface. She sees an almost faded and dried red handprint.

She then taped her earpiece, and began transmitting to the other thirty five squads present at the time, making a total of four, including hers, of squads per tower.

"All squads, this is Boss; are you all in position?"

The confirmations come in quick, prompting a smile from her.

"Alright, our support team is going to forward to you the master access code to all doors and locks. Make sure to clear hallways first, and then advance to the rooms themselves, one by one. Good luck, people."

As she let go of her earpiece, Rax mumbled. "Did that Senator lady give us the code?"

Hunanda looked back at Rax, her dark blue eyes looking directly at his glowing head, by instinct, to where one would expect to find eyes. "Not really... but when she forgets, we don't mind the small inconvenience..." She then shows a cocky grin, prompting Rax to chuckle very lightly, as if he was an amused child.

Hunanda lowered her silenced sub-machine gun, and began tapping away at the controls, quickly opening the door. As soon as the faint sliding noise is heard, her three teammates point their guns at the hallway wall that stood three metres ahead of the door arch.

She took point, finding herself in a long hallway that intersected with another to her right. She walked left, went to the blast proof door, tapped it twice, paused and tapped it once more, and right after, someone else on the other side did the same action and pattern and she nodded at her teammates, confirming the other team was there.

She then began walking opposite to the door itself, the air thick with an unnatural stillness, something that only bothered Hunanda further. Her grip around her gun tightens, and she reaches the intersection.

Signalling her team, she silently points at a person and then at a portion of the long hallways, sending them to scan it out. They perform their task with speed, returning to her and showing her thumbs up.

She nods, and trusting that all the doors are locked, she signals them to start clearing the rooms in two pairs, and as they put themselves in position, they open the doors at the same time, only to find them empty.

A quick flash of a light shows that there are dry stains everywhere, and soon enough the white tiles covered in a track of blood let Hunanda know that something or someone was dragged in an injured state out of the room she stood in.

She tapped away at the small panel and locked the room down, and they moved on to the next pair of rooms. Again, nothing out of the ordinary, no entities to kill.

Hunanda took a deep breath, and kept performing this task, and ten minutes later, every room in that section had been cleared. She looked at her teammates and gulped. "The population of this colony is circa ten thousand people, and so far we only found five hundred in the towers. Where the hell are the rest?"

Rax shrugs. "Perhaps they died off and decayed, I don't know... I am just a bit eager to shoot something..."

Hunanda sniffed the air and nodded. "Let's get moving."

They quickly moved down the hall, taking one of the two directions that go into the building, as the other three teams were already clearing the inner parts of that section. They decided to take the right first, and quickly opened the door, only to find it all quiet.

This hallway was simple, no intersections, and the apparent lack of population made Hunanda wonder as to where everyone had gone. Soon enough, they begin checking all the rooms, most of them being storage, with the exception of one bathroom in the middle of the hallway.

As soon as they opened the door, a foul smell made them flinch and raise their weapons, only to find someone curled up in a corner, with a small round object laying in their limp and open hand.

The smell itself came from a wound in the head of the Avian, whom also had a gun lying at her side. Hunanda knelt on one leg, and grabbed the round object, and quickly enough saw a holographic recording of the person that was now resting in front of her, a frantic speech ensued, being sometimes incomprehensible by the loud pounding on metal heard.

"If anyone ever finds this, please tell my love Uniada that I love him! Dating that fish was one of the best things I did in my life. He hates it when I call him that." The Avian chuckles with tears in her eyes, and then disappears from the recording, as the only thing heard is a loud gun noise, and with it, the pounding on metal quickly comes to a halt, and moans that fade in another direction are heard.

Hunanda looks at this metal piece, the thoughts of this story swimming in her head. She felt terrible for this woman, as she too had someone to love, and thus would hate to not talk to her again. Putting the piece in one of her pockets, she kept moving, continuing down the hall, locking the door behind her team.

Soon enough, what could be called her instinct made her snap to attention, as she heard a faint, regularly interval noise. She raised her gun, keeping her eyes behind the sights, and ever so slowly advanced towards the noise itself.

She didn't even turn the corner completely, when she saw someone standing in front of her: this person seemed Apex, so she had to be careful, as they were usually stronger than other species.

Putting one foot in front of each other very slowly, she silently approached the creature, taking out her knife from her chest piece's sheath, and quickly enough buried the knife all the way to the hand guard inside the back of the head of the being, silencing the slow breathing noise it was doing, which made it seem like a symptom of someone with breathing problems, as if asthma.

Hunanda then slowly lowered the body on the floor itself, in order to avoid whatever possible noise, and after that, grabbed her gun, raising it towards the end of the hallway she was standing on, seeing it clear.

She then turned around, and shone the light on a group of individuals, which quickly turned around and growled at her. She only yelled: "Alright, screw the silent policy!"

In half a second, her other three teammates rushed over, two kneeling at the front, and Rax standing at her side, performing the dangerous and yet efficient static manoeuvre of a firing squad.


	3. Chapter 3 - Ejection

**Chapter Three – Ejection**

Hunanda sighed as their gunfire had created the secondary consequence of constant and irregular poundings on the several doors of that hallway section. "Well, so much for doing this in a sneaky manner..."

She gripped her sub-machine gun and twisted her head a few times to relax her muscles. "Alright, let's get this over with..."

Without hesitation, she opens one of the doors and instinctively unloads on the people present there, turning their heads into smoke emitting, cauterized and deformed, pieces of exposed flesh.

Hunanda groans. "I swear to God, I hope this is the only time I have to purge a place of freaking zombies..." She continues to clear rooms until a communication pops up in hear earpiece, and she quickly taps it. "Hello?"

A teenager is heard on the other end. "Hey, Boss. Got something for you..."

"Bunny? Where is Cobra?"

"He went to the bathroom."

"Oh, alright; so what do you got for me?"

"Apparently you can avoid their attention if you bring atmospheric sealed suits; they pick up on you by hormones, or pheromones... either way, if your smell gets out, they come for you."

Hunanda's eyes become wide in a split second and she looks at her teammates. "Alright, Bunny; patch me through to all the teams." She waits a few seconds and is given the heads up she can perform her task.

Before she can speak, shrieks of horror are heard through the communications, and not long after, everyone realizes that team thirty one was under attack by overwhelming numbers of assailants.

Hunanda hears an insane amount of chatter wondering what was the next move and she gulps, making a hard decision. "We are not going to help them; we are not going to run into the potential danger of finding a horde of these things: the best we can do is hope they hear me when I say they should find a room and stay inside of it, as these things cannot beat through durasteel."

Suddenly, a rough voice is heard notably over all others, forcing everyone to silence. "I suggest we go back, get our space suits, and come back, as quickly as possible, or else we might lose more people!"

Hunanda nods by reflex and sighs. "Precisely, Wave; let's do that as soon as possible."

The teams waste no time in going back to the roof, having their necessary items delivered to them in recording breaking time, in mere minutes, and soon enough find themselves gathering up in the sections below the fifth tower.

Moving quickly through the hallways, they double check all the dead corpses, until they run into a gruesome scene: civilian bodies shot up for the first dozen metres leading up to a mess hall, and in the mess hall itself, the bodies gradually went from being shot up to being cut, sliced, and in some really odd instances, torn to pieces, with limbs removed from their sockets.

Hunanda raised her closed fist, signalling everyone to stop, and as quickly as she asked: "What is taking so long for the second squad to get the power back up?", the lights returned to the entire room, and in front of them were simple a dozen standing enemies, with the rest of the floor being filled with these creatures.

Without hesitation, Hunanda opened fire, causing everyone else in the team to do the same, brutally eliminating the outperformed instinctive creatures in the room.

As they spread out to check the area, Hunanda sees three bodies and curses as she notices the armours with the symbol of their group, but then remembers the obvious little detail that all teams sent down were made of four teammates.

Looking around, she notices a lot of bloody hand prints on a particular door, and her keen vision made the freshness of said prints as being very recent. She looks at the keypad and taps away frantically, the door opening with haste, and she points a gun in, finding an injured Floran, a teammate of hers, and she smiles, sighing of relief.

"Oakskin, you are live. Thank god..."

He groans of pain, amber like fluid oozing out of his wound. "I may be of tough skin, but I am not immune to gun shots..."

Hunanda quickly calls for a medic, and sniffs. "Stray bullet?"

He nods, grunting as he tried to sit better. "Yeah..."

Greenfire, a Novakid of green hue, comes racing in, quickly opening up his kit to assist the Floran.

After a while, they take Oakskin back to the roof, and after a small drop ship lands on the roof to take him back, Hunanda revises their plan and initiates a full on aggressive movement to purge every nook and corner of the structure, now with a live silhouette feed of every humanoid form within it, which aids them in bypassing empty areas far quicker.

The last area they clear is a ground level hangar, with its gate wide open, and Hunanda can't help but call her support team. "Cobra, you there?"

"Yeah, Boss, I am here. What's up?" The Floran said, as he sipped on a cup of his favourite drink.

"Are there other settlements or habited places on this planet?"

"Yeah, there are a few, why?"

Hunanda mumbles something aggressive. "Because I suspect that most of the creatures themselves might have escaped..."

"So you are going to hunt them down?"

"No. We were paid to clear the building of hostiles, and that is what we did; our job is now done, but I am going to have a chat with the Senator. Close the hangar gate, by the way."

No answer is needed, as the fast sliding, twenty meter tall, segments of metal go from one side to the other, locking down the entire facility.

They walk back to the elevators, reach the roof tops, and before they know it, they are on their way home in faster than light travelling ships.

They pop out of hyperspace, reaching a simple solar system, directing themselves to the dark side of a snow planet, in the midst of a storm of hail, which was nothing against their shields.

The ships themselves dart around a mountain, to a hangar built near the bottom of it, and pass the energy shield. A medical team was expecting them upon landing, taking the two metre tall thick skinned Floran to the medical bay, in order to tend to his wounds faster.

The hangar shields are turned off, after the tall metal door closes, locking down the facility for the incoming night. Although they were accustomed to different schedules, each day there lasted fourty eight hours, and with a storm of hail to stay, the shields could only do so much to keep the heat in, so lock down procedures had to be put in effect.

Hunanda walked out of the hangar and made sure to take a detour to her office, where she promptly contacted the Senator, whom was quick to answer. "Yes, Cobalt; is there something I can help you with?"

Hunanda swivels her chair, deep in thought. "The mission has been complete, the colony is clear. If you want bodies removed or anything else, you will have to find someone else."

Senator Anna nodded. "Of course, the deal was that..."

"But I have to say that many of the former residents ran off, through an open ground level hangar, and they are going to attack other settlements, if they happen to run into them..."

"Well, go and hunt them down!"

Hunanda smirked and shook her head. "You see, that is not going to happen; our deal covered only the clearing of the colony; as of now, you could only ask us to go hunt down the bastards if you made a new deal and a new payment. Even so, we are now in lockdown, as a hail storm is outside, and we just began our twenty four hours of night in this daily cycle."

Senator Anna felt frustrated and almost yelled at Hunanda. "You are going to force me to relocate my military to hunt down civilians gone berserk?"

Hunanda nodded. "Yes, of course; although, while you do that, if there are complications and my group sees itself involved in some public scandal, the consequences that come your way will be dire..."

Hunanda shuts down the call with a serious expression on her face, and calls Cobra, whom appears on the holographic projection quickly. "Hunanda, need anything? I am going to rest, so you better make it quick."

Hunanda nods. "Of course, Rylan; just make sure that the Senator doesn't have a correct recording of what just happened..."

"Alter the original?"

Hunanda's response was a silent nod. "Sleep well, my friend."

The Floran hacker winks at her with one of his black eyes. "You too, Boss."

She then sighs and stands up, leaving for her room, where the splashing of water was being heard. Hunanda started to place her items on a counter, resting her armour on a stand, but all this after removing her shoes, walking barefoot on the fully carpeted floor.

Out of the shower comes a Hylotl, her wet smooth light blue skin reflecting the light from the lamps on the ceiling. She sat down on the end of the bed next to Hunanda, adjusting her towel to not let the water drip down onto it. "How are you, my blue beauty?"

Hunanda is quick to kiss Ausra, and then giving her a strong embrace. "I am happy that you are here; and if you wonder why I am like this, I saw a suicide note of someone back at the colony..."

Hunanda shows Ausra the holographic message left by the Avian, and the Hylotl's yellow eyes squint in an expression of happiness, one of her many tentacles that grow out of her head coming to Hunanda's eyes to clean away a tear. "I am glad you are here too; tell me everything that happened..."

Hunanda clears her throat, and gets up, slowly becoming theatrical as she tells the story of another mission, but making it sound exciting. "There we were, under the blazing sun..." Ausra can't help but chuckle in amusement at her performance.


	4. Chapter 4 - Mag Eweon

**Chapter Four – Mag Eweon**

Ausra strolls through the wide city streets of that moon city, her smooth light blue skin reflecting the faint street lights, her short kimono skirt swinging with her quick steps, while her over the knee laced boots made her presence somewhat stand out.

She looked around, every head turn spinning her head tentacles, which could be considered her hair. She adjusted her bö staff's strap, and kept walking, until an Apex, a brutish gorilla looking one, standing tall, got in her way. "Hey there, precious, aren't you lost?"

She walks around him, ignoring the man, keeping up her pace.

"Hey baby, where are you going? I just want to talk to you!" He runs up to her, smirking.

She looks at him and fills his hears full of sass. "If I wanted something, I'd say it, so back off!"

He chuckles and grabs her wrist. "Come on, I just want to have some fun..."

Suddenly, Ausra raises two of her green tentacles consciously, poking the Apex's eyes, and darts off, leaving him to complain for a few seconds, before roaring of anger and starting to run after her, the alleyways tightening as they head deeper into the slums of the city.

He follows her into a dead end, and smiles stupidly once more. "Oh, nowhere to hide... this is going to be fun." Suddenly an electric hum is heard, and the Apex turns around, seeing Hunanda, the cobalt blue skinned Floran, holding an energy shotgun to the bottom of his back. "Cobalt..."

Hunanda looks around him and at Ausra, calling her by her codename. "Good job, Auvi." She then looks up at the beast. "Hello, Fred. Sorry, but this time you are my contract. Come with me, nice and easy, if you want to keep the upper half of your body attached to the lower one."

He groans of defeat, and Ausra continues to sass. "Perhaps if he was smarter, he'd walk around with some armour on, and not just a douchebag tank top."

Hunanda chuckled, poking the lower back of the brute every now and then, leading him into a nearby club, with its doors open to a main street. Everyone in this city was armed to some level, so most ignored Hunanda's behaviour.

The short skirt lured the Apex's eyes to Ausra, and she, whom was carrying her spear to her side, swung it back, hitting him in the forehead. "Eyes front, monkey."

Being accused, he looked back, to see an expressively annoyed Floran, and gulped in air, feeling nervous with every step they took.

Leading him to one of the back tables in the exclusive VIP area, up some stairs, that functioned as a balcony to the dance floor below, they reach a human, young looking, but scarred, with one eye completely white, one of his scars running through that part of his body.

The human chuckled. "Fred, how are you doing, my friend? Sit down!" This human had two avian girls next to him, chuckling and giggling as they talked to each other. He then looks at Hunanda and points at the table. "Here, other than the payment I already gave you earlier, here is a personal thanks."

Hunanda nods, while Ausra flinches with her drink, so the Floran slams one, shaking her head, letting out a vapour like breath. "Ah, your bartender makes these strong, I like it." Seeing the other glass empty, she looks at Ausra, with a squinting stare.

Ausra hiccups as she finishes her drink, blushing as the alcohol's effect kicks in, making her wave air at her own face. This amuses the human, making him laugh out loud, unintentionally spilling some of the beverage in his hand on the table.

Hunanda leans against the railing behind her, below which she could see the floor below, where the disk jockey station was situated, and below that was the dance floor, two hundred metres in width, and equally in length, the lights that illuminated it at the level of the heads of those in the VIP area, thus not shining upon their faces or eyes, making the exclusive area very enjoyable.

The Floran sniffs and looks at her contractor. "So, Jeremy, you need me any further or is everything done?"

The human waves at her. "Go on, feel free to leave, I can conduct business with my friend over here, no need for extra security." Hunanda nods and shakes hands with him.

"Good to see you again, old friend."

Jeremy smiles and winks at her. "Hope the stars always shine upon your path." He then looks at the Apex, whom was twirling around one of his many thick arm hairs, nervous. "Now, Fred... about that money you owed me and wasted on gambling..."

Hunanda walked down the stairs, trading handshakes and bumping fists with every guard, a signal of her social connections with the people of that place. She waved at Ausra and looked at her. "You alright?"

Ausra shrugged her shoulders. "I am in that state... you know which... just don't annoy me."

Hunanda looks at her with a smirk. "Oh, trust me, annoyance is not what I want to give you, quite the opposite: I want to make you enjoy your time around here..." The Hylotl grabs onto the waist of the Floran, chuckling, prompting Hunanda to speak up. "But not now, we still have one more issue to take care of before we head back..."

Ausra, unlike her usual, peace minded self, gains an expression of frustration, pursing her lips in a look of annoyance. "Fine, you damn flower, let's get this over with."

Hunanda chuckles, leading the Hylotl to a shuttle cab, a pod with thrusters positioned all around its hull, made to help you travel the city quicker. They sit down inside, waiting for the door to close automatically, and the voyage itself is not of long duration, taking a maximum of two minutes.

As they reach the area, they stop next to the second gathering of air sealed high rises, the moon settlement itself seeming like two circles that grow in height at the centre, joined at their edges.

After a bit of walking, Hunanda and Ausra find themselves in a busy street, full of pedestrians, in front of one of the high rise buildings. They head inside, being promptly greeted by an Avian service woman, whom requested from them the purpose of their presence, and soon enough were sent upstairs, to the seventy fifth floor of an eightieth floor tall building.

They enter an office, finding a female Hylotl, her green eyes standing out from her purple skin, and her current call contact says his goodbyes, leaving the woman to turn to her right ninety degrees, looking at her two visitors. She stands up, stretching her arms for a hug, and walks around her desk, greeting the couple. "My friends, how are you?"

Hunanda sighs. "Doing well, day by day, doing my job, getting rich, kicking some ass..."

The Hylotl's name was Kraal Iota, and she is the silently agreed leader of the world of Mag Eweon, which could be considered the capital of organized crime, and Hunanda just happened to know her well and personally.

Ausra started to look around, while Hunanda started to talk to the crime leader. "I am here to tell you that... remember that discussion fifteen years ago, on the orbit of that god forsaken acid rain jungle planet?"

Kraal groaned, as if the memories pained her. "That was an annoying assignment... yes, I remember when we spoke there, why?"

Hunanda sniffs and lowers her tone. "I have been considered that wild dream of mine for the last couple of years, now."

Kraal's eyes widen, and she gains a serious expression, bending over the desk, deep in thought. "Alright, I get the idea. I will need a few days to gather everyone. Do you mind waiting around here? I can get you a room."

Hunanda shakes her head. "We don't got much going on right now, I can wait, sure..."

They are taken to a suite, where Ausra is quick to jump on the bed, laying on it, with a gentle moan of comfort. "Man, I missed this."

Hunanda coughs. "We left home this morning..." She then sits next to an amused Ausra, who pokes the bottom of her back. "What?"

"You know what..." The Hylotl shifts her eyebrows, and Hunanda doesn't waste her time jumping on her lover, helping her get rid of her long lasting mental state.


End file.
